129 Father’s heart
***[Mrs. Patry]***
Several months had already passed since her daughter left for the dukedom, and when she realized, the year had changed before she knew it.
Winter is over and spring is here.
Really, I want to pass the time well.
The Marquis de Patry sat down with her husband and gazed at the letter.
It was sent by Anne’s fiancé.
For our couple, who will be wondering how Katrin is doing, the maid’s fiancé, not her daughter, sent it.
Catherine is too busy to seem to have time to send a letter.
Since I came once a few months ago, I haven’t heard anything about it.
“…”
I never forgot my parents because I loved the duke and my in-laws so much.
It was because she was too busy, too busy with her studies and work as a duchess.
Thinking so, Marquis Patry let out a small sigh.
As if her sighs were contagious, her husband followed suit and sighed.
“He seems to be doing well.”
Another sigh escaped from the mouth of the Marquis Patry.
“That’s right. When I first got the letter saying I was going to live there, I thought the sky was falling… Contrary to what I thought, they seem to be getting along really well.”
The events of last year came to mind in the Marquis Patry’s mind.
A bloody laugh leaks out.
“At that time, really… huhuhu. You were in a mess too. Your face turned blue.”
My husband also smiled a little, probably remembering what happened then.
“You had no choice but to do that at the time.”
When I first heard that Catherine wasn’t coming back from the duchy, I couldn’t sleep for a while.
It was because he was worried that it could not have happened because Katrin was too good, and that perhaps he had an accident and became a figure from which he could not return.
The duke’s blow made the child’s face turn blue, or perhaps a broken arm or leg.
So I was worried that I couldn’t bring myself back here.
I had so many horrible thoughts that I didn’t feel alive even though I was alive.
My husband must have had similar thoughts, so he made a fuss about visiting the duke’s family right away.
I’m not going to follow
It was just to make an excuse and ask to visit the duke’s family and meet their daughter.
That was all my parents could do.
A woman in this country has full rights to her father before marriage.
And upon marriage, all rights passed to the husband.
As long as she doesn’t kill her, everything about her is up to her husband’s authority, and even her real parents can’t interfere.
In some cases, compensation or treatment in such cases is written down in the marriage contract, but it can be hidden if the husband tries to hide it.
Moreover, even if they were being treated unreasonably, divorce or separation was not necessarily better.
No matter who is at fault, when it happens, it is the woman who is to blame.
It doesn’t matter what is written in the marriage contract.
Divorce was dishonorable and shameful.
It is true for men, but even more so for women.
For this reason, most of the parents’ families did not accept the divorced daughter.
Even if you want to accept it, you have no choice but to pretend you don’t know for the sake of the family.
In the end, most of the women were kicked out of their in-laws and found it difficult to make ends meet.
Even if compensation is received, the amount is not very large, and usually it is difficult to receive because the man somehow makes a bad situation for the woman.
My husband doesn’t even know that.
I knew it well.
That’s why I decided to become a duke.
She knows that the best way to protect Katrin is to show that her married daughter is still cared for by her own family.
I thought that this wouldn’t happen with dukes, but people don’t know just by looking at it.
‘It’s something I can tell just by looking at my sister.’
It was thanks to Anne’s letter that the situation, which had reached the brink of sending a visit letter to the duchy, finally calmed down.
Knowing the situation this way, Catherine’s nanny panicked and brought a letter.
In the letter, it was written about Catherine and Anne’s hair falling out little by little because they studied so hard, how splendid the duke’s family was, how good and cool her fiancé was, and so on.
Nowhere was Katrin beaten or unhappy.
It was only then that I finally confirmed that my daughter was doing well, and when I think back to the moment when the two of us put our heads together and laughed, I feel ridiculous and weak.
The Marquis Patry read the letter, recalling the past, and sighed again.
I couldn’t understand the words added at the end of the letter.
“Honey, what are you talking about about this witch named Poowoo? Katrin training her… What the hell are you doing there?”
“I mean.”
My husband muttered as he stared at the letter.
“I can’t really understand my daughter sometimes.”
“I don’t understand it at all, not sometimes. The Duchess is training witch beasts, and if it was another family, she would have been kicked out right away.”
“I guess so.”
My husband sighed heavily and murmured.
“Maybe it would be a good idea to give the Duke something.”
“… I see. I need to send something to the godfather too.”
“…”
Her husband looked at her and smiled.
“Still, it’s good to hear that the child is happy. I thought it would be difficult for him to live peacefully and well.”
A smile appeared on Marquis Patry’s face as well.
He is a stiff, stubborn, and sometimes somewhat forceful person, but there are times when I feel really happy to be married to this man.
‘like now.’
After folding the letter and placing it on the table, the husband put the teacup to his mouth.
It seems that chat time is over now.
It seems that the inspections have already started in the duke’s family, but in the marquis’ family, it will be implemented from tomorrow.
Until this year, her husband and her son, the heir, will go together, but from next year, the son will go alone.
Gradually handing over the lord’s job, her husband was slowly stepping back into a position of assisting his son.
Do you think you are old now?
My husband seems to be a little confused about it.
Maybe that’s why I care so much about my daughter.
If the son completely inherited the lordship and took the real power, the family’s stance on Catherine could change.
Before that happens, she must have wanted to solidify Catherine’s position in the duchy.
There’s not much we can do, but that’s what parents think.
While drinking tea, the husband suddenly opened his mouth.
“A letter came from the third person in the royal capital. They say that recently, a fortuneteller from the royal family has cursed and causing problems.”
“Oh my, did that happen?”
The third son is staying in the royal capital.
Currently, I am working as an official in the palace, but I don’t know what will happen in the future.
The husband seems to want to make the child the first assistant, but the third person seems to hope to continue working as a palace official.
The two do not agree.
Normally, it would be natural to follow the wishes of the head of the family, but now the husband had taken a step back after the eldest son persuaded him to allow it.
‘Though things will be decided in the direction the first wants.’
Maybe the first thing is to let the younger siblings do what they want to do.
It might just be that he doesn’t say anything for a while so as not to hurt his father’s face.
My husband hardened his expression as he talked about fortune-tellers.
“It seems the rumor has spread that the goddess is angry because of that fortune teller.”
“Could it be… is it real?”
“I don’t know about that. But the timing is so right, it seems rumors are adding to rumors. kinda like that.”
“Do you think the third one is that the royal family spread the rumor?”
At the words of the Marquis, the husband nodded.
“Rumors are so favorable to the royal family that I can’t help but doubt them.”
“But that would embarrass the Crown Prince.”
I heard that fortune teller Igor is very close to the crown prince.
The fact that she became the royal family’s fortune teller in the first place was thanks to the introduction of her by someone from the Crown Prince’s side.
If Igor incurs the wrath of the goddess, there will be an aftermath to the crown prince as well.
So, when I said it with the meaning that maybe it was a rumor from Prince Emile or the second queen, the husband’s face hardened a little.
The husband let out a small breath and glanced at the butler.
The butler goes to the door and makes all the attendants who open the door leave before he speaks.
“A while ago, a letter came from the duke. It was a normal message, but unlike usual, it mentioned Prince Emil. My guess is that the duke is inclined towards Prince Emil.”
“…you mean that maybe these rumors came from the duke and not the royal family?”
The Marquis’s voice became quieter by itself.
The husband shook his head.
“Well, I don’t know that much. Even if it’s not the Duke himself, the people under him could have done it, and there’s a possibility.”
If the duke intends to support Prince Emile, and that’s why he started doing it, a clash between the royal family and the duke’s family will be unavoidable.
There will be interference from other countries, which are the Queen’s parents’ home, and the situation may escalate considerably.
The Marquis suddenly remembered Catherine’s immature face.
“Honey, Catherine, is it right to leave the child in the ducal family? If the child is caught by the royal family…”
My husband sighed with a tired face.
“I feel bad about that too, but I can’t help it. Hopefully, that child will stay in the dukedom while training his beasts. Don’t go up to the royal capital.”
“…”
My husband smiled as he brushed up his thinning hair with age.
“Well, it’ll work out somehow. The duke will take care of it, so don’t worry too much. And… even if you don’t tell, you’ll know, but this is a secret. It’s difficult to spread rumors before the duke prepares properly. It’s not certain yet.”
“Yes, I know.”
The Marquis stared at her husband’s face.
A crown prince is a person who will become king.
The succession battle is about making a king.
If he loses at the end of defying the already-determined successor, the family might be ruined.
At least in the case of Robert becoming king, there will be considerable difficulties.
“You… what would you do? If the duke said he would support Prince Emile.”
Her husband looked at her and smiled.
“Isn’t the answer already given?”
The husband spoke calmly.
“The Marquess of Hoven will belong to the Duke. Not simply because he is a grandson, but because the family has not been very friendly to Prince Robert from the beginning. It’s as obvious as seeing fire.”
“…”
“There are several families that I can be sure will follow the duchy. There are not one or two families that have received the favor of the Duke of Weiss. Besides, there must be quite a lot of families that will change their minds among the royalists. There must have been a lot of old families, so if the duke turned his back on him, he would quickly abandon the crown prince. Crown Prince Robert has behaved very badly all this time.”
“…”
Even from what the Marquis heard, the crown prince’s evil deeds were quite numerous.
In particular, I heard that Crown Prince Robert took several women from aristocratic families by force.
Among them was a young lady with a fiancé.
Because it was an incident while she was still engaged to a princess from a foreign country, it is said that she could not enter the concubine.
The fact that Baron Heath’s daughter entered the crown prince’s concubine was because there were not one or two witnesses.
If it had been covered, the girl’s business would surely have quietly disappeared into the shadows.
In such a case, the original engagement is canceled, and the woman has no choice but to go to a monastery or receive the position of second wife.
It seems that the royal family used their hand behind the scenes, but the secret scandal remains, and the resentment of the woman and the broken family does not disappear.
In addition, there are many families who think of their daughters only as the horse of an arranged marriage, but not all of them are like that.
Some families valued their daughters and tried to marry them off to good husbands, even if they were somewhat inferior, and many families did their best for their daughters even if they did not.
In the case of such a family, the resentment would be considerable, so in a way, Crown Prince Robert’s downfall must have been caused by himself, not because of the duke.
There was a time when the Marquis and her husband could not lower their guard when they noticed that the crown prince had an eye for Catherine.
Yes, if Katrin had suffered badly then, her husband would not have put up with it.
Even now, perhaps, he was just waiting for the Duke to speak.
maybe on and on.
Suddenly, when I looked at my husband’s face, he smiled.
‘No way… no, maybe it’s like that.’
I don’t express it well on the outside, but my husband is a person who loves his children secretly, so it’s possible.
Besides, Catherine is the only daughter.
It is also because I am worried that my husband is frantic about the child.
Waiting for the Marquis to put things together, her husband opened his mouth.
“If the duke supports Prince Emile, then the next king will be in trouble. If our family joins in, well, what happens after that is obvious.”
Feeling elated for some reason, the Marquis let out a small sigh.
‘This person secretly had poison for the crown prince.’
You really can’t tell a person just by looking at them.
‘Please, this should be finished well.’
The Marquis was nervous, and gently pressed her hand to the area around her heart.
Please, nothing will happen to my husband, my sons, and my daughter Katrin.
Please do not let this harm my loved ones.
please….